Greetings from Oregon. I'm a new CCGTCC member. Many thanks to Terry Shaffer and Steve Bedo for assisting me in joining. I'm a real newbie to the hobby of casino chip and gaming token collecting, having acquired moderate collections of each recently. I learned about CCGTCC on the last page of the Official Chip Collector's Price Guide, which I picked up through Barnes & Noble last month. What a fascinating hobby, and a very interesting group of collectors in the club! Little did I know how big the world of chip collecting was!

I am not new to the world of casinos and gaming, though. My paternal grandfather, Whip Jones, operated a big string of gambling houses throughout the west (none in Las Vegas) from the 1920s into the early 1950s; mostly in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. My dad, Johnny Jones, learned the business as a young teen, and moved to Las Vegas (with my mom and me) in 1949, when I was four. I grew up there, attending kindergarten at 5th Street Grammar School, and graduating from Western High School (after a couple of years at Las Vegas High).

My dad's first job in Vegas was working for Benny Binion at the Westerner (mom worked at the old Silver Club then). All through the 1950s, he was a wheel dealer at the Railroad Pass Casino, near Boulder City. Starting in 1961, when I was in high school, he owned the Club Bingo on Fremont Street. In 1970, he became an owner in the new Union Plaza, and ran its slot department until his retirement about five years ago. He worked in the gambling business for seventy years. I worked for Jackie Gaughan (dad's partner) at the El Cortez for about seven years. That was during the '70s. I've lived in Oregon since '77, but have continued to visit Vegas regularly to see my parents. Las Vegas has changed so much since my family moved there in 1949, when the population was 22,000! Sometimes I really miss the old Las Vegas.

I'm excited about chip and token collecting, and am looking forward to learning more about it through CCGTCC! At the moment, I'm just focused on educating myself about the hobby, with the long term goal perhaps including buying and selling.

Kindest regards to all CCGTCC members!

Huff Jones
Eugene, Oregon